Those Beautiful Snake Eyes
by HanaImakura
Summary: Life is going fine for Macromet Lorette until her sister suffers a huge accident. Worried about her sister, Macromet is glad when she is hired to be a dancer at a local casino. Oogie is tired of waiting around for victims and finds his way to Vegas where he discovers something better than what he came for and tries to take it all for himself. Beauty and the Beast type romance.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A New Job

A loud ringing sound devastated the silence. Macromet extended a pale hand from under her

magenta covers and picked up her cell phone. "Hello?" she asked rather sleepily, trying to stifle

a yawn as she brought the phone into her long, tangled blonde hair. "Hello? Is this Macromet

Lorette?" came a nervous female voice. The reply seemed to rush at top speeds from the other

end, as if frantic. Concerned, she answered, "Yes. This is Macromet. What's wrong?". The voice

on the other end made an audible effort to try and calm down before saying, "It's your sister,

Maxime. She was in an accident and is in critical condition. She is being taken to St. John's

hospital.". Macromet dropped her phone in shock. _Not my sister_ she thought, _Not now_.

In the past few years, Macromet and Maxime had seen everything really go down the drain.

Everything except their relationship as sisters. Their parents had been killed in an awful bus

accident, forcing Macromet to take on a second job to help provide for her younger sister, who

would soon be turning fourteen if she would survive the collision she had just had on her

bicycle. All of these stressful questions and thoughts raced to and fro in Macromet's head as

she made a dash through the apartment to dress herself and leave. Her half-day off was going

to have to wait.

_I'm so stupid! I should have woken up earlier to take her to school in my car!_ she gritted her

teeth as she hopped into her sky-blue bug and backed out. The world rushed past her window

in what appeared to her as no less than a simple blur before she found herself parked and

leaving her car in the hospital parking lot. She did not even stop at the front desk longer than to

scrawl her name on the guest list and ask where her sister's room was before taking off down

the hall. As she hurried past with her keys jangling and hanging from her pocket, several young

men whipped their heads around as if to double check that she had really just run past them.

Macromet knew what was going on, but she had no care in the world- aside from her father,

she had never known a man to think with anything else beyond, well, the thing he should never

think with. Besides, even if she had cared, they would never matter more to her than her own

sister. She bolted into her sister's room, really panicking now, and quickly made her way to her

sister's side.

Maxime lay there in the white hospital bed, barely breathing, looking more broken and frail

than a fractured mirror would appear if it were held together by tissue paper. "Maxime, stay

with me!" Macromet blurted out, tears rolling down her cheeks as she leaned a bit over the

rails and a doctor placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know you can hear me, sis! We can get

through this! If we could get through the time when we lost mom and dad, we can get through

this together!" she sobbed as the doctor gently led her away and sat her down, saying, "Ms.

Lorette, try to relax. We will try everything we can to help your sister.". To her, his words were

cold and clinical, but he was right on one thing- what good would it do to just stand there over

her sister when she needed real treatment and surgery? So Macromet forced herself to

become quiet and as the team filed out of the room with her sister in tow, the waiting began.

Eventually, Macromet drifted off to sleep because the first surgery was taking so long. Then, a

soft shaking motion brought her back into reality and she saw the doctor walking over to her

sister, motioning for her to follow. "Will she be alright?" Macromet bit her quivering lip as she

rose to join the doctor. The man sighed and shook his head. "At this point, we don't know for

sure. The only thing of which we are certain is that for now, she appears to be stable." came the

nearly emotionless voice from behind the mask. "But, I have hope that we can help her even

still. The only thing you should be worrying about right now is making sure you will be able to

pay the bill when the time comes, because we are going to try everything, as we have already

said…" his voice trailed off as he witnessed the change in Macromet's expression. "The bill?"

Macromet's voice was filling with anger and frustration, "The bill?! My sister is in trouble and

you think all I have to worry about is the bill?!".

Catching herself before her anger got any worse, Macromet brushed past the doctor and

rushed home. Perhaps it was because she needed sleep, perhaps it was because she needed

food, or maybe it was just because the hospital was closing. Whatever the case, the way that

the doctor behaved so nonchalantly about her sister's predicament agitated her greatly. When

she arrived home, she went straight to the bathroom to wash up. She felt that sometimes a

good cleaning could be a good stress reliever. Macromet was easing herself into a nice,

steaming bubble bath when something caught her eye by her vanity. "Huh?" she said aloud to

herself, "That's strange… I thought I just saw something creepy moving about in my mirror…

Ugh… Must be the result of all this ugly stress…" she groaned as she tossed her hair back and

began washing it under the faucet of the tub.

Now, Macromet was never a believer in the strange and unusual, but for her, a fairytale might

as well have been about to come true. A week prior, Macromet had sent in an application for a

job working at a local casino located on the Strip, so she had placed her phone on a small

wooden chair beside her towel just outside of the tub. She jumped a bit with fright when it

began ringing before she dried her hands on the towel and took up the phone to answer it, half

hoping it would not be those jerks from the hospital again.

"Hello? Is this Ms. Lorette?" came a much calmer, much friendlier voice. "Umm, yes. It is.

Why?" she replied after switching the phone to speaker and setting it back down on the chair.

"I am calling to let you know that we have decided to hire you here at Snake Eyes' Casino as

one of our dancers. I know it may seem awkward that we never requested an interview, but we

are really short on our team here right now and would like you to start working tonight at eight

pm sharp. A nice outfit and all of the accessories will be waiting for you in the dressing room."

the woman bubbled before promptly but hurriedly hanging up. Macromet could not believe it.

It would be tough to work three jobs, but at least maybe now she would be able to afford her

sister's hospital bill, seeing as that would eventually be a problem.

Eight pm was coming on fast and would be upon Macromet within little over an hour, so she

quickly dressed herself, ate some dinner and was back out on the road again, heading towards

her new job as a dancer by seven fifteen. She eagerly walked right into the casino through the

back door and found herself already in the dressing area for the girls. There was a really cute,

sparkling pink outfit folded on one of the chairs, covered in several pearl and diamond

accessories with purple-magenta feathers, with a note sitting on top that read "For Ms.

Lorette.". She took up the outfit and slipped into it in one of the separate little dressing rooms

to find that it seemed to adjust itself to her form perfectly, even if it was a bit uncomfortable

for her to think about how much skin it was showing.

She was just leaving the room when a voice boomed out on the stage from beyond the closed

curtains to everyone in the casino that in five minutes the girls would come out to put on a

show featuring a new member. "Ooh! You excited, Macromet?!" a beautiful girl next to her

smiled and shuddered, "I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it! We're about to be on!

We're all gonna knock'em dead, I just know it, though!". Macromet grinned back and tried to

forget any worries she had for the time being as she said, "Yeah! Let's get out there and

show'em what we've got!". The curtains parted and flooded their sight with bright light from

the flashing night life of the casino as the girls all stepped forward and the beat began booming.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Pumpkins Scream In The Dead of Night

Oogie was bored out of his mind, or whatever was considered to be his mind. He was slumped

up against the back of the metal slab he had once used to hold down Sally and Sandy Claws. Of

course, it had been quite a few years since then, which gave some of the leftover bugs enough

time to regroup and reassemble back into his original form, complete with even the burlap

material. But because of the fact that Jack worked together with the mayor during that time to

make sure that the doors to the other holidays could not and would not ever be opened again,

Oogie had not gotten to have any fun with a victim since Sandy. It was aggravating him and he

was racking his brain for ideas on how and where to find another victim. "Ugh… What should I

do? I'm feeling bored! So bored, in fact, that I don't think even a good ol' batch of snake n'

spider stew would make me feel any better!" he sighed.

He was just about to place the back of what would be his hand on his forehead out of stress

when he suddenly got an idea. "I know!" he shouted with excitement and sinister laughter as

he got up to move over to the chute that connected his chambers to that of Lock, Shock, and

Barrel's. "Hello, kiddies! I've got something I need you to do for me, and you better do it right,

or I'll throw you all into the next batch of snake n' spider stew!" he made his voice boom down

through the metal tunnel and imagined the sheer power of it knocking them over, which made

him grin. Shock jumped off of the couch, knocking over Lock and Barrel, and made her way over

to the chute. She cupped her little gloved hands on the sides of her mouth, took a deep breath,

and yelled back, "Of course, Mr. Boogie Man! But what, specifically, would you be wanting us to

do?!", as Lock and Barrel rolled over with peals of mocking laughter in the background.

"Well…" Oogie mused, "Why don't you three little ghouls run along and find me a way outta

here?!" his voice doubled in fierceness and loudness. "Ghouls?" said Barrel, looking confused.

"HEYYYY! We're no GHOULS!" Lock shouted angrily as he got to his feet. Shock turned her head

slightly, with an angry glare and yelled, "SHUT UP! Ghouls are better than you two, anyway!".

"Says the bitch…" grumbled Lock as he turned his back to her and folded his arms, swishing his

tail madly behind him. "WHAT did you just call me?!" Shock left the chute and marched over to

Lock, ready to strangle him. On hearing the beginnings of a fight, Oogie's grin widened even

further. This was just adding to the fun he was expecting. Of course, he did actually want them

to go out and find a way for him to find a victim, but it was an added bonus for now to hear

drama going on. At least it was noise to shatter the silence that had so long pervaded the

house.

"A witch! I called you a witch!" Lock shouted into Shock's face. "No, he didn't!" Barrel chimed

in, "He called you a bitch!". "You called me a bitch?! Why I aughtta…" Shocked yelled as she

wound up her arm to throw a punch in Lock's face. The only thing that stopped her was the fact

that Lock quickly pointed to an old broken mirror that was glittering and lying on the floor,

saying "Hey, look! It's glowing!". Shock dropped Lock onto the ground on the spot and rushed

over to pick up the mirror and rub off some of the dust. "Hey… You're right! It is glowing!"

giggled Barrel, clapping his hands with excitement. "Shhh! Shut up! I hear something!" Shock

half whispered to them in a very rough tone. When the boys had quieted themselves down, all

three children could hear the sound of running water, as well as a female voice filled with

confusion, but they could not make out the words it had said. Then, the mirror began

emanating a sharp ringing sound over and over, spooking the trick-or-treaters and causing

them to hide behind the couch.

"Wh-What was th-that?" Lock thought aloud when the mirror went silent. "Th-That's n-n-no o-

ordinary m-mirror, th-th-that's f-for s-s-sure…" Barrel had a difficult time keeping his teeth from

chattering long enough for him to talk. "Oh, s-s-stop b-being s-s-scaredy c-cats…" Shock jabbed

at them both before creeping back over to the mirror to see if everything was okay. The mirror

was as blank as ever and no sounds came from it, so Shock supposed it was okay to touch it

again. This time, she tried to touch the glass part, but to her surprise, her arm went straight

through! "Hey! Dimwits! Check this out!" she whispered as she waved her half-stuck arm

around, showing them that the mirror was a portal like they had been ordered to find.

"We found it! We found it!" Lock and Barrel's devious grins returned full force as they leapt up

and down with joy before rushing to Shock's side. "Oh, goodie! You've found a portal? Send it

down here now!" Oogie's voice thundered up from the chute and nearly toppled them over,

mirror and all. "Of course, Mr. Boogie Man! Right away! Look out below!" the three of them

yelled in unison as they took up the mirror and shoved it down the chute. Oogie couldn't

contain his joy. As the mirror traveled through the chute, he was dancing with delight and

salivating for his escape. As he threw out his arms after a twirl, the mirror landed right in his

hands with a beautiful little shimmer around it's rim. The trip through the chute had greatly

altered it's dimensions, so now it was just the right size for Oogie to go through. He quickly set

it up against his Wheel of Misfortune and laughed maniacally and with sinister effect as he

crossed through it into the other world.

When he arrived, it was at first horrifying. He saw something that looked like a bed, but it just

did not look comfortable. It didn't have snakes or teeth, claws or fangs. Instead, it was made of

wood and had a bright magenta tone to it which, for someone from a dark world, was blinding.

Everything else was also just as terrifying. The night stand was not alive, the toilet in the

bathroom to his left had no eyes or teeth, and though the tub had legs, they could not move!

But Oogie was determined not to let this get the best of him and resolved not to leave until he

had gotten himself a new victim. He heard a door shut a few rooms over and very soon after,

he heard a loud roaring noise start up down below and then fade out into the distance as it

moved away at a fast pace. _Well, _he thought slyly, _that might have been my next victim. I'm _

_gonna follow'em! Poor sack won't know what hit'em!_. As he crept towards one of the windows

for an escape route, adrenaline began rushing through every bug inside of him for the thrill of a

chase.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Fright Night

Much to her surprise, Macromet was able to move very smoothly and she kept up well with the

rest of the dance team. This made her all the more happy, because if she could keep it up doing

this good, she would not soon be losing this job. What she did not know was that she was being

watched by something she did not know was there. Something that was lurking in the shadows

back stage. Oogie had slinked in through the back door after her as silently as possible and now

sat back, admiring and taking in everything. At first, his focus strayed from her and roamed

about the casino sprawled out before the stage.

_Ohohoho… Just look at this joint!_ He was almost salivating, _Why, if I could take all of this good_

_stuff back home…_ His train of thought was disrupted. The music came to a huge swell in the

booming notes of the beat and to keep up, the girls began having to dance much faster than

earlier. Oogie became interested again once he caught sight of Macromet performing a move

where she had to bend forward to touch her toes and run her hands briskly over the forms of

her legs and pull her arms up into waist-holding positions once they reached her hips. _You'll be_

_mine soon doll-face_… were the words echoing through his mind, and as he rubbed his hands

together in a scheming way, he could not help but lick his lips.

The dance number was coming to it's end and by now, Macromet possessed a feeling of having

been spied on from the shadows behind her. The thought of it sent chills down her spine and

put goosebumps on her skin, but she tried to ignore it until the music was finished and the

curtain was drawn. "Hey," she tried to casually ask the girl beside her on stage as the curtain

came down, "Do you feel like someone else is back there watching us?". When she saw that

Macromet was pointing behind her back towards off-stage left, she inhaled a bit comically and

said, "Oh, don't worry about that, dear! Sometimes the janitors are back there during our

shows and they sometimes like to watch a bit, too. I'm sure it's nothing!". Macromet wrung

her hands a bit and did not look at all too sure about that. With a smile, the other girl then

added, "But that aside, you were great out there! I look forward to dancing with you again!"

and began to leave. Macromet grinned back weakly and replied, "Thank you… I look forward to

working with you again, too…".

_This is just too good!_ laughed Oogie quietly to himself, _She's all alone now, in the dark! Oh, this _

_is the perfect set-up!_. The lights back stage slowly blinked out one by one, as fast as the other

girls left, and now, Macromet was left all alone to get her things together, or so she thought. As

she rounded the corner to the room in which she had left her purse and clothes, she came face

to face with something twisted and wicked in the darkness.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed and threw her arms into the air as she

stumbled back in an attempt to escape. "Come ta Mister Oogie Boogie, baby doll!" Oogie

cackled aloud as he advanced on her and tried to prevent her running off. _Ugh! I shouldn't have _

_left the mace in my purse! I'm so stupid!_ Macromet growled, half in frustration, half in fright as

she tried kicking Oogie off of herself.

Big mistake. Yes, something squished under her heel, so she knew she had done some damage,

but it did not seem to be enough to throw off her attacker. She guessed he was probably too

heavy for her to have done that, and she did not know it now, but she would confirm that later.

"Get offa me!" she screamed as loudly as she could as she tried to beat away with her arms.

"No can do, baby doll…" came the deep, sinister, satisfied voice of Oogie from the shadows,

"You're comin' with me!". The next thing she knew, she was being held close to something that

felt like a giant burlap sack and was eerily squirming with… She didn't even want to dare think

about what it could be. Oogie had sort of draped her over his shoulder and was carrying her

back to the apartment, to the portal back to Halloween Town. "Put me down this instant! When

we get out there into the streets, all I'll have to do is just yell and police will come after you!"

she banged with her fists as hard as she could against his back, but was shocked to feel the ugly

sensation of squishing small quantities of insects under the burlap.

Oogie merely laughed darkly and said, "Don't even try, baby doll… I would be their worst

nightmare! And besides," he added, "You should be thankin' me for changin' my mind about

cookin' you up in my snake n' spider stew!". "Snake and spider wha-?!" she could not believe

what she had just heard. It made her feel like vomiting, but the way she was draped, she had

very little access to her stomach and so, the feeling was cut short. "Oh, don't worry," Oogie

mused as he turned his head a bit to look at her, "You'll learn ta love it!". After this, they were

both silent, and eventually, Macromet passed out from the way she was being carried.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Brutal Death

When Macromet regained consciousness, she was in a darkened, unfamiliar area, and she

discovered she was being held down with restraints. Despite this, she struggled, pulling at the

metal cuffs and screaming for help. "Hello?! Is someone there?! Please, I need help getting out

of here!" she strained against her hold and yelled at the top of her lungs. Deep, dark laughter

oozed out into the air surrounding her. "Relax, baby doll, it'll be easier!" came the

unmistakable vocals of Oogie Boogie. Before she could scream, Macromet heard a loud,

screeching metallic sound mixed with the dull sound of a falling rope.

There was a brief spurt of pain, and she suddenly felt a warm, spreading, liquid mess in place of

her lower half. In a mere matter of seconds, just as she was realizing what had been done,

everything went pitch black. When her eyes fluttered and closed, Oogie eagerly began tearing

away at her flesh from the opening he had made by splitting her in half. "Oohoohoohoohoo!

What fun this'll turn out to ta be!" he chortled with mirth as he ripped out an organ and tossed

it to the floor. Meanwhile, Macromet's eyes were opening again, but she no longer found she

was in the same surroundings. There had been a strange light and suddenly, she found herself

in her apartment, as if nothing had happened. The only problem was, she could not hear the

cars honking and zooming about on the street below, or the voices of loud, rambunctious

neighbors. Everything was dead silent, and even, she thought, somewhat ethereal.

"Something's… Different…" she muttered over and over to herself as she inspected the

apartment over and over. "This isn't a book I had…" she gasped as she reached into one of her

bookshelves and pulled out a volume titled, _Handbook for the Recently Deceased_ which

featured a man in a nice blue suit and a woman in a happy, pink outfit, looking out towards a

sunset together. She leafed through it nervously and on seeing the chapters introducing and

welcoming the reader to the land of the dead, she nearly fainted. "I'm… I'm… I'm dead?" she

gasped in shock, dropping the book to the floor. "But wait... I've seen this book before

somewhere…" she looked as if something struck her, "But where?". On this train of thought,

she rushed over to her DVD shelf and began taking out and tossing movies onto her bed, until

she came to one featuring a man in undead make-up, a green mess of hair and a black and

white suit smiling maniacally on the cover.

"Beetlejuice…" she whispered, awestruck, "That's it.". She remembered the entire movie within

a second and made a note not to try leaving the apartment, or there might be sand worms. It

quickly dawned on her that even her attacker had seemed familiar somehow and she came to

the conclusion that the movies she loved most as a young teenager were not exactly just films.

_Well, I'm not ready to cross over… I'll just wait here and maybe, hopefully, I'll be reborn and _

_somehow meet my sister in a new life…_ she sighed as she plopped down in front of her tv and

pushed in Beetlejuice. As she whiled away time in the In Between, Oogie had busied himself

with stitching her skeleton, brain and heart in with random patches of neon-luminescent cloth.

"Here's the sack of bugs you asked for, Mr. Boogie Man!" Lock, Shock and Barrel chimed

together as they approached Oogie from behind with a large burlap sack teeming with tons of

creepy crawlies. "Excellent…" Oogie giggled in his low voice as he was putting some of the last

stitches on the new body. It was made completely in the same exact image of beauty as

Macromet, only baggier, deflated and lifeless. "Alright… Come ta Oogie, baby doll!" Oogie

danced a bit on one foot as he hefted the sack over his shoulder and began pouring bugs into

the new body. Within moments, she began surging to life as the insects discovered ways to

restart what remained of her living system. There was another surge of light, and Macromet

found herself floating in darkness and infinite space. "Oh no! Is he trying to pull me back?" she

panicked and placed her face in her hands. This was becoming very stressful and agonizing on

her end.

For a moment, Oogie stood back and observed the slight movements and jerks of Macromet

returning to her body with delight. But then, he had an idea. A terrible, nasty, horrifying idea

that had been ingrained in his subconscious since the very first moment that he had laid eyes

on her. He did actually want to devour her, but not in the form of stew. Not in the form of food

at all, in fact. Tossing aside all restraint, thinking that he should move before she was totally

back, he rushed to the end of the slab and clambered up. His gaze rested on her faultless,

sleeping, patched up face and it very nearly drained him of his will to taint her. Regaining

himself, he thought aloud, "Don't worry, baby doll… This is gonna be fun!".

Macromet noticed that she was getting closer and closer back to her old life, and she could feel

the roughness of burlap scratching against her skin. It felt terrible, and it made her want to itch

all over where she felt it. But then, she suddenly stopped itching as shock overtook her again.

She suddenly felt torn apart, broken, hurt and all in pieces. What was worse, she also began to

feel something scaly inching it's way into her from below and it was even more uncomfortable

and aggravating than the other feelings at present. At once, she finally shattered into pieces

and another bright illumination found her back in the restraints on the slab in the darkened lair,

with loud snoring echoing in her ears.

She peered over the slab and could just make out the sleeping form of her kidnapper. She was

not exactly sure what he had done to her to make him so tired, but she decided to take the

chance to try and escape. She slid carefully off of the slab when she found that the cuffs had

been opened and tiptoed over to a door adorned with a skull-spade. She quietly opened it and

crept outside onto a small, crooked and dark veranda. When she looked out onto the

landscape, she became extremely frightened, but tried to keep herself together. She saw

sprawling graveyards, a huge pumpkin patch, thousands of hills, a single curled hill that seemed

to touch the sky, and a large gothic town off in the distance. She supposed that this world was

bathed in the perpetual influence of Halloween madness.

Meanwhile, although no one would yet know, some spiders inside of her were stitching the

beginnings of something very odd together.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Confinement

Little did Macromet know, she was being followed from the shadows again. Lock, Shock and

Barrel were all three peering at her from within their pet tub from a dark little corner off to the

left. "We mustn't let her escape or Mr. Oogie Boogie Man will be having us for dinner!" Lock

quietly announced to Shock and Barrel. Shock had looked like she was just about to say the

same thing and shot him a mean look for stealing her line. Barrel sat there looking back and

forth from Lock to Shock and back again, expecting a loud fight to break out in which someone

would end up bleeding, but it never happened. Instead, the tension swiftly and silently fizzled

out and Lock and Shock returned to observing Macromet's actions.

Much to their surprise, Macromet had disappeared! She was inching her way slowly down to

the ground, though it was still a pretty long way off- Oogie's place must have been the tallest

building in this world. She took another good look towards the ground and tried to suppress her

oncoming anxiety. If she freaked out, she could lose her grip and go plummeting down. She

took another step down, onto a protruding tree branch and decided that getting down would

be a lot easier to do on the tree. In no time at all, she safely reached the ground. "Alright… I'm

out." she thought wearily, "Now I have to find somewhere to hide until I can figure out how to

leave this place…". Without a second thought, she turned and high tailed it into town.

Lock, Shock and Barrel searched everywhere in the perimeter of Oogie's place in their tub.

"Ugh… She's not here! We'll never find her!" Barrel distressed loudly and slumped into the

bottom of the tub. "Hmm… Maybe we could convince someone to bring her to us…" Lock

scratched his chin, deep in thought. Shock instantly whipped around to face the boys and

grinned once more saying, "Ooh, yes! We could have the mayor bring her to us! He's so afraid

of us, he'll do anything!". The three of them cackled in unison and ordered the tub to head

straight into town.

By this time, Macromet had reached the central plaza, with the gagging fountain spewing the

luminescent green sludge. "How… odd… Is something wrong? Is this supposed to be spewing

toxic waste like this?" she couldn't help wondering aloud, convinced she was alone. "Oh no,

dearie. It's always been that way." came a more elderly voice, startling Macromet out of her

loneliness. Macromet whirled around to see who it was that had spoken and came face to face

with a huge, even maybe bloated, rotting corpse and she let it all out right then. She screamed

at the top of her lungs. "Shhh! Calm down, dear! I didn't mean to frighten you!" the Corpse

Mother gently took Macromet's hand and began patting it to try to get her to come to her

senses.

Once Macromet realized this thing was not an enemy, she halted screaming and let out a long

sigh. "I-I'm s-sorry ma'am… I-I've been through… a lot…" she tried to maintain her breathing as

she began to explain her situation to the kind stranger. "Oh, I can see that… You must be new in

town. I'll take you to Jack. I'm sure he'll be able to do you a good deal of help." the Corpse

Mother tried to show the pearly whites, but the effect was the opposite of what she wanted.

Nevertheless, Macromet was willing to accept whatever help she could possibly get and she

tagged along with the Corpse Mother and the Corpse Child that was with her. As they walked,

Macromet had another moment of déjà vu. She could have sworn she had seen that child

before. The phrase, "There goes Christmas…" seemed to arise in her thoughts when she looked

at his face with the eyes stitched closed. It occurred to her that she also remembered having

seen those eyes crying, even though they were stitched so tightly closed. "I suppose even the

scariest of monsters might have hearts and dreams…" she thought as she tried not to choke up

from the memory.

Before long, they came to and climbed the steps of a fairly tall, narrow and winding house. It

was a bit unsettling that the front gates reminded her of a prison wall or a cemetery, but she

supposed this Jack was a good person, as the citizens seemed to treasure him very much.

Hesitantly, she reached out and pulled on the spider doorbell which retracted instantaneously

and gave out a loud screech, nearly knocking her back down to the gate in fright. "Coming! I'll

be right there!" a musical, whimsical voice found it's way through the door. Seconds later, the

door was opened by a very tall, very thin, very spindly looking skeleton sporting a friendly grin

and wearing a pin-striped suit with a bat bowtie. "Hello, there! The name is Jack Skellington,

Pumpkin King of Halloween. What brings you here, miss?" Jack seemed even more genial than

he appeared.

"Well…" Macromet bit her lip. Would Jack believe her story? She had no idea if he knew about

there being other worlds. "Is there something wrong?" Jack looked prepared for a shock that

would never arrive. She shuffled her feet, scratched her head a bit and replied, "Yes…

Something is terribly wrong. I was kidnapped and brought here.". At this, Jack already had a

good idea of who might have done such a thing, and thinking that Lock, Shock and Barrel might

be somewhere eavesdropping, he said to her, "Well then, come in and tell me the rest of your

story, please." and gently ushered her inside, locking the door behind them. Macromet made

herself comfortable on the lid of a nearby coffin, looked up at Jack as he sat down beside her to

listen and said, "Some huge, maniacal sack of bugs brought me here, and… and killed me. I have

no idea how he brought me back, but I feel very different from when I was first alive. I'm pretty

sure he's done something else awful to me too, but right now, my only concern is hiding long

enough to figure out how to leave this place…".

Now, Jack was even more concerned for her. He knew but did not want to tell her that as long

as she remained in Halloween Town, Oogie and his boys would search for her endlessly and

absolutely nothing could stand in their way. He was actually becoming a bit terrified for the

poor girl. "Well," he started, "I don't know how long it will be able to work as a place to hide,

but you can try staying here with Sally and I for a while. He's not going to give up easily, but if

Oogie Boogie does find you here, well, Sally and I have stood up to him before, and I think we

could take him again." and he looked enquiringly at Macromet, waiting for her approval before

placing his hand on her shoulder. "Thank you so much!" sniffled Macromet with a newfound

smile on her face. She had only just met Jack, but he seemed really trustworthy and honest-

made of everything perfectly fit to be a best friend.

Meanwhile, those spiders were finishing up the first few inches in a patch of burlap.


End file.
